Keeping Time
by Nayuki-Bunny
Summary: theirs was an odd sort of dance, one that defied beat and rhythm/ ten drabbles


**this is just something the lovely raindropdays and I decided to do together again, because we'd had so much fun the first time. the two of us accepted the challenge to have ten random songs to write ten snippets to. each snippet had to be written within the duration of the song and could only be edited afterwards for the most minor of errors. **

**at any rate, I hope you all enjoy this piece (or pieces, I guess), so without further ado...**

* * *

><p><em>Black and Gold (Ellie Goulding)<em>

She's dreaming again. She knows because it's quiet.

It's quiet in her churning mind, and she isn't alone. Divine's here, breathing words into the space between them and trailing cool fingertips down her arms.

But he's here too. He's watching her, silently. Expectantly.

She's tempted to ask him why he's here. Hurl some sort of verbal acid at his calm eyes and set jaw.

_You don't belong here, in my mind, in my chaos-_

But, inexplicably, she keeps quiet.

Divine shifts from behind her, the fabric of his sleeves brushing at her skin. His lips pause by her ear.

But it is he, watching her silently with burning blue eyes, who sends a shiver down her spine so that it arches.

_I know you_, his gaze whispers and her eyes widen as Divine melts away.

She wakes up with the sheets tangled around her and his name dying on her lips.

* * *

><p><em>Goodbye Apathy (OneRepublic)<em>

_I can see you…_

He moves slightly, slowly and deliberately turning a page with unhurried fingers. The book rustles, whispering of words on words and paper on paper, and she resists the urge to sit on her hands.

_I can see you, but I can't reach out._

They want to do silly things, like maybe push his book to the side and trace the lines on his palms. Or perhaps smooth the hair from his brow to catch sight of his smoldering gaze.

_Everybody is watching you…_

Distantly, she can hear Jack and Crow arguing about something, the familiar hum and whirs of machinery sounding in the background. She bites her lip.

_Everybody is watching you and I fade to the back._

He turns another page and she looks away, trying to quell the tremors in her heart. "Silly girl," she thinks. "If you stray too close to the sun, you'll burn…"

She doesn't notice that he's watching her too.

* * *

><p><em>Cosmic Love (Florence+the Machine)<em>

Once, when she was younger, she had shut her eyes and seen whirling galaxies and streaking supernovas behind her lids. "They're your hopes and dreams," her father had told her, stroking her hair on some rare night when he wasn't busy. "Don't let them fall out of sight."

And so she had held onto them with clutching, childish hands before recognizing them for what they really were-

"Unattainable. Impractical," Divine had told her. "You need only me. I am the only one you can trust."

And his hands were firm and his eyes were honest (they _saw _her), so she believed him. She believed him and let his hand wipe the color from her sky.

"No dawn," he had said, "no day, no blood-red sun to shine. "

_Only you, _she'd thought, and she made a cloak from the perpetual dusk to match her mask of shadows.

She knows now that that was why she had recoiled from Yusei; his pure heart and sunlit words had been too bright for her to bear.

* * *

><p><em><span>Lovesick (Emily Osment)<span>_

The bass is thudding in his ears, pounding in tandem with his heartbeat, and the air is humid. He doesn't want to be here, pressed against countless, faceless bodies that turn and twist and spark like electricity. He doesn't want the hungry stares from gyrating women and he doesn't want the familiar burn of alcohol down his throat.

What he wants is to see her, and his lingering gaze sweeps over the crowd.

"Looking for something?" someone murmurs, but he catches the voice before it can slip away in the din.

He turns and she smiles. Slowly, seductively.

Her hair gleams in the dappled light and her eyes are aflame with expectation. He vaguely notices that the music and chatter have dimmed in her radiant light, and that their breathing has synced to the same frequency. She steps back and he follows her, magnetized.

"Not anymore," he grins. "Dance with me."

* * *

><p><em><span>Best of You (Foo Fighters)<span>_

"Resist it," he says, and she pushes him away with dark hands and a masked face. "Resist it!"

She doesn't. She crumbles, cracking with fissures and fractures, but he reaches for her again.

"Break free," he says, and she pushes him away with wide eyes and trembling lips. "Break free!"

She doesn't. She sways, shackled with limbs and a tongue of rusting iron, but he reaches for her again.

"Take my hand," he says, and this time he takes hold of her wrists to pull her close. Her hands twist and their fingers twine. "Take-"

She takes his hand and she gives him her heart as well.

* * *

><p><em><span>Remember the Name (Fort Minor)<span>_

The low whine of engines buzzes in his ears and he shifts, adjusting gears. The wind stings, nipping at his skin with eager, fanged teeth, but he urges the motorcycle faster still. Distractedly, he notes the needles dip further and further until the numbers and scenery bend and blur around him. It is then that the familiar rush of exhilaration sets in.

And then someone is next to him, fighting closer.

He glances over only once, for a split second, but his concentration wavers. Her eyes are bright, cat-like, under her visor and she stares at him while edging further ahead. He realizes later that he'd grinned, matching the smile curving her lips as he accelerated forward.

The wind is still singing in his ears and his body is still fizzling with adrenaline when he pulls his helmet off, counting his prize money. He senses her again, hovering next to him, and turns with an easy smile.

Her expression is neutral, almost guarded, but her crossed arms and jutted hip say something else. She studies him for a long while, then lazily pushes her hair back. It slips through her fingers like wine.

"Aki," she says shortly. "Remember the name."

"Yusei," he replies. "And only if you remember mine."

* * *

><p><em><span>Wish We Were Older (Metro Station)<span>_

"Don't," he murmurs. His warm breath clouds over her throat in a pleasant prelude to his fevered kisses. "Don't."

She hisses, dragging hungry fingertips down his spine, and presses against him. "No," she says, and his breath hitches.

She shifts deliciously against him so that they both gasp at the friction, and he gives a strained curse. She pulls at his hair, sighing his name and lifting her hips, and he slants his mouth over hers. She pushes her palms to his chest, running them upward and underneath his shirt, and he lets her push him back and straddle him.

Her tongue traces his collarbone and he grips her waist warningly when she skims her fingers lower, lower, _lower_.

"Aki-" he groans and her eyes flutter, dazed.

She pauses for a long moment, studying his belt buckle and the taut muscles of his abdomen, then leans in to breathe remorsefully in his ear.

"I wish we were older."

And her hands fall away.

* * *

><p><em><span>Starry Eyed (Ellie Goulding)<span>_

He's watching her, burning her with those eyes, when she looks up. Her breath catches.

Her traitorous heart is hammering at her throat, pushing toward him, calling out the words she struggles to say. He's waiting quietly, patiently, but she can hear the ticking of clocks in each of his hushed breaths.

Her chest tightens and she reaches, her voice igniting-

"I've always loved-"

His gaze flickers, like a dancing flame, and her words rustle and wither and fade to ash.

She couldn't do it after all. He was a smoky galaxy, a whirling cosmos, and she was only one star caught in the orbit of his eyes.

* * *

><p><em><span>Pieces (RED)<span>_

"I'm scarred," she's saying. "I'm easily broken."

Her voice is serious and her eyes are distant and he has the sudden urge to bridge the gap, the few feet of separation, between them. He wants to seize her hands (it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter to me) and see her gaze spark with life, with laughter, with love-

But her words rush out faster, shoving at his resolve with a desperate current. And yet he sees, wading closer, that her eyes are blurred with unshed tears. His fists clench and she tries to step back.

"I'm still a mess, you don't want me, you don't want this, I'm in pieces-"

He pulls her to him, winding his hands around her waist to crush her closer.

"Then let me make you whole."

* * *

><p><em><span>One Day (Trading Yesterday)<span>_

She doesn't pretend to know what will happen.

She's staring out her office window, papers forgotten on her desk, just remembering. The faintest of smiles pulls at the corners of her mouth. Her fingers trace the rim of her coffee cup, round and round.

Like fate, that circular concept. Like a clock ticking away time. Like a winged dragon inked on skin. Like his vivid irises.

Her hand stills.

Sometimes she wonders if he remembers her too. Her face, her words, their moments together. But that thought is always fleeting, always pushed back in her mind to gather dust and cobwebs.

She thinks it's silly to think about that, especially when her heart is forever calling to him, whispering words for the wind to carry to his ears.

She doesn't pretend to know what will happen. But she knows that she'll be here, waiting.

"Always."

* * *

><p><strong>hope you all liked this, though it's a rather odd blend of cheese and angst and AU XD;;<strong>

**I'd love to hear what you think!**


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